"Opera House, sitting across the ""Königsplatz"" from the burned-out Reichstag building, functioned as the Reichstag's venue for the remaining twelve years of the Third Reich's existence. In July 1933, Marinus van der Lubbe, Ernst Torgler, Georgi Dimitrov, Blagoi Popov, and Vasil Tanev were indicted on charges of setting the ""Reichstag"" on fire. From 21 September to 23 December 1933, the Leipzig Trial took place and was presided over by judges from the German Supreme Court, the ""Reichsgericht"". This was Germany's highest court. The presiding judge was Judge Dr. Wilhelm Bürger of the Fourth Criminal Court of the Fourth Penal Chamber"
"Reichstag fire The Reichstag fire (, ) was an arson attack on the Reichstag building (home of the German parliament) in Berlin on 27 February 1933, one month after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Hitler's government stated that Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch council communist, was found near the building and attributed the fire to communist agitators in general—though in 1933, a German court decided that van der Lubbe had acted alone, as he claimed. After the fire, the Reichstag Fire Decree was passed. The Nazi Party used the fire as evidence that communists were"
"Reichstag Fire Decree The Reichstag Fire Decree () is the common name of the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State () issued by German President Paul von Hindenburg on the advice of Chancellor Adolf Hitler on 28 February 1933 in immediate response to the Reichstag fire. The decree nullified many of the key civil liberties of German citizens. With Nazis in powerful positions in the German government, the decree was used as the legal basis for the imprisonment of anyone considered to be opponents of the Nazis, and to suppress publications not considered ""friendly"""
"an arson attack on the Reichstag building in Berlin on 27 February 1933. The fire started in the Session Chamber, and, by the time the police and firemen arrived, the main room was engulfed in flames. Police searched the building and found Marinus van der Lubbe, a young Dutch council communist and unemployed bricklayer, who had recently arrived in Germany to carry out political activities. The fire was used as evidence by the Nazis that the Communists were beginning a plot against the German government. Van der Lubbe and four Communist leaders were subsequently arrested. Adolf Hitler, who was sworn"
"little de facto executive power. Reichstag Fire Decree The Reichstag Fire Decree () is the common name of the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State () issued by German President Paul von Hindenburg on the advice of Chancellor Adolf Hitler on 28 February 1933 in immediate response to the Reichstag fire. The decree nullified many of the key civil liberties of German citizens. With Nazis in powerful positions in the German government, the decree was used as the legal basis for the imprisonment of anyone considered to be opponents of the Nazis, and to"
"the President of the Reichstag, and elected Göring to the post. The Reichstag fire occurred on the night of 27 February 1933. Göring was one of the first to arrive on the scene. Marinus van der Lubbe—a Communist radical—was arrested and claimed sole responsibility for the fire. Göring immediately called for a crackdown on Communists. The Nazis took advantage of the fire to advance their own political aims. The Reichstag Fire Decree, passed the next day on Hitler's urging, suspended basic rights and allowed detention without trial. Activities of the German Communist Party were suppressed, and some 4,000 Party members"
"for the act, except for the Social Democrats, who voted against it. After being appointed chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933, Hitler asked President von Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag. A general election was scheduled for 5 March 1933. A secret meeting was held between Hitler and 20 to 25 industrialists at the official residence of Hermann Göring in the Reichstag Presidential Palace aimed at financing the election campaign of the Nazi Party. The burning of the Reichstag, depicted by the Nazis as the beginning of a communist revolution, resulted in the presidential Reichstag Fire Decree, which among other"
"1933, President of Germany Paul von Hindenburg, acting at Hitler's request and on the basis of the emergency powers in article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, issued the Reichstag Fire Decree. This decree suspended most citizen rights provided for by the constitution and thus allowed for the arrest of political adversaries, mostly Communists, and for terrorizing of other electors by the SA (the Nazi paramilitary force) before the upcoming election. In this atmosphere the ""Reichstag"" general election of 5 March 1933 took place. The Nazis had hoped to win an outright majority and push aside their coalition partners, the German"
"Reichstag fire on 27 February 1933 and was demolished by air raids in 1943. On 15 January 1919 the socialist Karl Liebknecht was shot by Freikorps soldiers within the park near the lake ""Neuer See"". The corpse of Rosa Luxemburg, murdered on the same day, was found in the nearby Landwehrkanal on 1 June 1919. The first ""Institut für Sexualwissenschaft"" (Institute for Sex Research) of Magnus Hirschfeld was situated at the former ""In den Zelten"" street, near the contemporary ""Haus der Kulturen der Welt"", from 1919 until it was closed by the Nazis in 1933. A site next to the"
"The Nazis blamed a communist conspiracy. The responsibility for the Reichstag fire remains an ongoing topic of debate and research. According to Ian Kershaw, writing in 1998, the consensus of nearly all historians is that Van der Lubbe did, in fact, set the Reichstag fire. William Shirer writing in ""The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich"" surmises that Van der Lubbe was goaded into setting a fire at the Reichstag, but the Nazis set their own, more elaborate fire at the same time. The case is still actively discussed. In July 1933, Marinus van der Lubbe, Ernst Torgler, Georgi"
"Reichstag fire at the end of February 1933, Chancellor Hitler's government blamed ""communists"" and launched a major round-up of those who had been active Communist politicians before the regime change. Johanna Ludewig fled, initially to Britain and then to Denmark. However, she returned to Germany in 1934 and took a job as a book keeper in Berlin. She was kept under police surveillance and on several occasions interviewed by the Gestapo. According to one source she was arrested in 1937, but there is no indication of any lengthy period of detention at this point. However, in 1944 the unsuccessful assassination"
"a majority government. Because of the political stalemate, he asked Hindenburg to again dissolve the Reichstag, and elections were scheduled for early March. On 27 February 1933, the Reichstag building was set on fire. Göring blamed a communist plot, because Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe was found in incriminating circumstances inside the burning building. According to Kershaw, the consensus of nearly all historians is that van der Lubbe actually set the fire. Others, including William L. Shirer and Alan Bullock, are of the opinion that the NSDAP itself was responsible. At Hitler's urging, Hindenburg responded with the Reichstag Fire"
"the Reichstag. A frivolous strike of the Berlin municipal workers, which left the capital without light, water, and electricity, ended after three days with an unconditional resumption of work. Food disturbances broke out at some places in the summer, but they were easily suppressed. More disturbing to the peace of the republic were the subterraneous movements which were forming in anti-republican circles. The preceding year had been marked by the murder of Matthias Erzberger. This year was marked by the aforementioned murder of Walther Rathenau, an attempt to poison Philipp Scheidemann, the lord mayor of Kassel, with prussic acid on"
"celebrated subsequently (especially during the ""East German"" years) as the last meeting held by the German Communist Party leadership before the participants were arrested and killed or, in some cases, managed to escape abroad. The Reichstag fire took place on the night of 27 February 1933. Although the government, with almost indecent haste, identified it as part of a communist plot, many took the view that it was actually the government that appeared to have planned for such an eventuality. Several leading members of the Communist Party were promptly arrested. Ernst Schneller was among those arrested overnight in Berlin on"
"""fourth-century Reichstag fire"" used to justify an extensive persecution of Christians. According to Lactantius, ""That might urge [Diocletian] to excess of cruelty in persecution, he employed private emissaries to set the palace on fire; and some part of it having been burnt, the blame was laid on the Christians as public enemies; and the very appellation of Christian grew odious on account of that fire."" Tacitus' account of the burning of Rome involved similar allegations. Notes Bibliography Reichstag fire The Reichstag fire (, ) was an arson attack on the Reichstag building (home of the German parliament) in Berlin on"
"Reichstag building The Reichstag ( ; officially: ""Deutscher Bundestag - Plenarbereich Reichstagsgebäude"" ) is a historic edifice in Berlin, Germany, constructed to house the Imperial Diet (German: ""Reichstag"") of the German Empire. It was opened in 1894 and housed the Diet until 1933, when it was severely damaged after being set on fire. After World War II, the building fell into disuse; the parliament of the German Democratic Republic (the Volkskammer) met in the Palast der Republik in East Berlin, while the parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany (the Bundestag) met in the Bundeshaus in Bonn. The ruined building"
"states' interests are concerned. After the German unification of 1870, the new ""Reichstag"" first met in the houses of the Prussian ""Landtag"" in Berlin. In 1871 it decided to have a new building constructed, and in the mean time had its base in a former porcelain factory at number 4, Leipziger Straße. Some 23 years later the ""Reichstag"" new building was finished, and it was opened by the Emperor in 1894. This is today known as the ""Reichstagsgebäude"" or as the ""Reichstag"". After the building was severely damaged in the Reichstag fire of February 1933, the Nazi Reichstag met in"
"plotting against the German government, and the event is considered pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany. The term Reichstag fire has come to refer to false flag actions perpetrated or facilitated by an authority to promote their own interests through popular approval of retribution or retraction of civil rights. The fire started in the Reichstag building, the assembly location of the German Parliament. A Berlin fire station received an alarm call that the building was on fire shortly after 21:00. By the time the police and firefighters arrived, the main Chamber of Deputies was engulfed in flames. The police"
"Comintern of the act. Some historians endorse the theory, initially proposed by the Communist Party, that the arson was planned and ordered by the Nazis as a false flag operation. The building remained in its fire-damaged state until it was partially repaired from 1961 to 1964, then completely restored from 1995 to 1999. Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor and head of the coalition government on 30 January 1933. As Chancellor, Hitler asked German President Paul von Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag and call for a new parliamentary election. The date set for the elections was 5 March 1933. Hitler's"
"the fire, Rudolph Diels stated that Göring knew how the fire was to be started, and General Franz Halder stated that he had heard Göring claim responsibility for the fire. However, according to Ian Kershaw, the consensus of nearly all historians is that Marinus van der Lubbe did set the ""Reichstag"" on fire. On 30 June 1934 Ernst had just married, and was in Bremen on his way to Madeira to honeymoon with his new wife. SA Leader Ernst Röhm had repeatedly called for a ""second revolution"" that would introduce socialism into the Reich and banish the old Conservative forces"
"not guilty. The trial was brought again to German courts in 1965, where the court found Marinus van der Lubbe not guilty of both high treason and ""seditious arson"" (being a Nazi innovation), but did convict him of arson, formally annulling the death penalty and imposing an eight years' hard prison sentence instead. Marinus van der Lubbe Marinus (Rinus) van der Lubbe (13 January 1909 – 10 January 1934) was a Dutch council communist tried, convicted and executed for setting fire to the German Reichstag building on 27 February 1933, an event known as the Reichstag fire. Marinus van der"
"interior minister. Four weeks later (27 February 1933), the Reichstag was set on fire. At Hitler's urging, President Paul von Hindenburg issued the Reichstag Fire Decree, which suspended civil liberties in Germany. Six days after the fire, the Reichstag election of 5 March 1933 strengthened the position of the Nazi Party, although they did not achieve an absolute majority. However, with their coalition partners, the German National People's Party, Hitler now commanded a bare majority in the Reichstag. Göring figured prominently in this election, as he was commander of the largest police force in the Reich. His police beat and"
"blaze. Hitler proclaimed that the arson marked the start of a communist uprising. The Reichstag Fire Decree, imposed on 28 February 1933, rescinded most civil liberties, including rights of assembly and freedom of the press. The decree also allowed the police to detain people indefinitely without charges or a court order. The legislation was accompanied by a propaganda campaign that led to public support for the measure. Violent suppression of communists by the SA was undertaken nationwide and 4,000 members of the Communist Party of Germany were arrested. In March 1933, the Enabling Act, an amendment to the Weimar Constitution,"
"the Reichstag fire, an act blamed on the Communists, despite there being little evidence to determine who actually started the fire. The remains of the building and the dome were further demolished with the bombings of Berlin through World War II and the eventual fall of Berlin to the Soviets in 1945. While the Reichstag building was partially reconstructed in the 1960s as a conference center, the dome was not. Much of the dome and the ornaments that decorated it had been removed by that time. Reichstag dome The Reichstag dome is a glass dome, constructed on top of the"
"a single perpetrator, van der Lubbe, as he had neither time nor appropriate resources for a successful arson attack. In ""The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich"", William L. Shirer wrote that at Nuremberg, General Franz Halder stated in an affidavit, that Hermann Göring boasted about setting the fire: On the occasion of a lunch on the Führer's birthday in 1943, the people around the Führer turned the conversation to the Reichstag building and its artistic value. I heard with my own ears how Göring broke into the conversation and shouted: 'The only one who really knows about the"
"were arrested. Göring demanded that the detainees should be shot, but Rudolf Diels, head of the Prussian political police, ignored the order. Some researchers, including William L. Shirer and Alan Bullock, are of the opinion that the NSDAP itself was responsible for starting the fire. At the Nuremberg trials, General Franz Halder testified that Göring admitted responsibility for starting the fire. He said that, at a luncheon held on Hitler's birthday in 1942, Göring said, ""The only one who really knows about the Reichstag is I, because I set it on fire!"" In his own Nuremberg testimony, Göring denied this"
"in the second general election of 1932, which was held in November. The political backdrop changed decisively in January 1933 when the Nazi Party took power and lost little time in transforming Germany into a one-party dictatorship. Party political activity - except on behalf of the Nazi party - was now illegal. At the end of February 1933 the Reichstag fire was blamed on communists, many of whom - including Hanna Sandtner's predecessor in the Reichstag, , were promptly arrested. Others fled abroad. Sandtner embarked on an under-cover career as a party instructor in the party's ""Berlin north"" sub-district (""""Unterbezirk"""")."
"The Reichstag fire at the end of February 1933 was instantly blamed on ""communists"" and marked the start of a mass round up of communist politicians and activists who had been at large when German was a democracy. Early in 1933 Himmelheber began to work ""underground"" for the Communist Party, working with on reorganising the party's regional structure in Kassel to accommodate its now illegal status. On 20 November 1933 she was arrested, and on 29 June 1934 she was sentenced by the district high court in Kassel to two and a half years in prison, after which she was"
"axe in the rest of Germany) on 10 January 1934, three days before his 25th birthday. The Nazis alleged that Van der Lubbe was part of the Communist conspiracy to burn down the ""Reichstag"" and seize power, while the Communists alleged that Van der Lubbe was part of the Nazi conspiracy to blame the crime on them. Van der Lubbe, for his part, maintained that he acted alone to protest the condition of the German working class. According to Ian Kershaw, in ""Hitler 1889–1936: Hubris"", written in 1998, the consensus of nearly all historians at the time of writing was"
"by Reich President Paul von Hindenburg and the new Reichskanzler, after which the two had a solemn handshake which symbolized the ""marriage of the old grandeur and new power"". Hindenburg laid a wreath at the tomb of Frederick the Great. Afterwords, parades were held by the Reichswehr, SA, the SS, the Stahlhelm, and others. Finally the deputies convened the new Reichstag at the Kroll Opera House, as the Reichstag building had been rendered unusable in a fire. That evening celebrations ended with a torchlight parade and a performance of Ricard Wagner's ""Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg "" at the Berlin State"
"was burned, an event that was blamed on the Communists. With Nazis in key positions in government, Adolf Hitler was able to push through the Reichstag Fire Decree, which was then signed into law by President Paul von Hindenburg. The decree withdrew civil liberties and enabled the Nazis to arrest anyone they deemed to be an enemy. This became first and foremost a confrontation with the KPD, but in effect, outlawed all political parties in Germany, other than the Nazi Party. The Enabling Act of March 27, 1933 consolidated their power and authority. By the end of April 1933, the"
"the chairmanship of it. At the start of 1933 the Nazis took power and lost no time in transforming Germany into a one-party dictatorship. Directly after the Reichstag fire, at the end of February 1933, arrests began of people who had been active in the Communist Party before 1933. Throughout the twelve Nazi years, official persecution would be focused most intensely on citizens identified as ""Communists"" and / or ""Jews"". But citizens with records of political activism in other parties were also at heightened risk. His home was on one side of the market place in Friedrichshagen which was at"
"in Karl Liebknecht House, which was also the national headquarters in Berlin of the German Communist Party. After this she obtained a job as a party instructor within the regional leadership. With political instability mounting, 1932 was a year with two general elections in Germany. The second of them took place in November. Helene Kirsch was elected to the national parliament (""""Reichstag"""") as a Communist member representing a Berlin electoral district. The political context change abruptly in January 1933 when the Nazi Party took power and converted Germany into a one-party dictatorship. At the end of February the Reichstag fire"